NPS4X Round 3 Venue

"Hooray, I won in Novice. Oh wait, this is my 3rd year in this cat, and most people here haven't even done 3 races yet...but nevermind, I still won!"

Lol!!! I bet some of the podiums do have that running through their head when the win aswell!!
It's definitely a worthwhile idea, will also make the masters category seem slightly more accessible imo...

what's the turn around time on bcf membership and racing licence applications?

what's the turn around time on bcf membership and racing licence applications?

a few days dude.

i dont class myself as fast atall but i know at least half of the people in novive 17+ are faster than me so it seems an apropriate catagory for me. however i raced this year in novice 12-16 so where do i go next year?

If you want to improve then the only way to do that is to go into Juniors (your cat.) and ride/race against people that are faster than yourself.........yeah you might not do so great to start off with, but the learning curve would be massive and you will soon be climbing up through the ranks if you stick at it.

I think giving the winner of Novice a race licence instead of a prize would be spot-on plus it will encourage/make them to race in their respective cats.

Hatch

But talking about it on here wont solve it alone... action needs to be taken!!

I dont need to take any action as I race in my proper cat...........the people who regularly race/do well in novice need to get in touch with Chris Roberts and get things sorted, all im saying is that it would be a good idea and would get rid of the "Sand baggers" that continually race in the novice Cats making it unfair for the true novices out there.

side note: Hatch, saw you at chicksands, looking quick! The bike looks lovely I'll have to bring my blender up there for a play ASAP!

Cheers mate, you should have come over and said hello. Yeah the Blender Ti is pretty sweet.......im just waiting on delivery of my new Blender Steel for a play/training/hack/winter dh bike..........will have to let me know when your heading to Chicky next for a Blender session.

Hatch

Cheers mate, you should have come over and said hello. Yeah the Blender Ti is pretty sweet.......im just waiting on delivery of my new Blender Steel for a play/training/hack/winter dh bike..........will have to let me know when your heading to Chicky next for a Blender session.

Hatch

I didn't wanna bother you when you're racing  . Some people want alone time before their runs to focus and prepare.

I adore my steel blender. I started to feel at home on it after about 5 minutes, and find it pretty confidence inspiring for a hardtail. I'm just starting to shed some weight off the build now (and have dropped a whole pound just changing pedals )

As of next year if i want to still race 4x im gonna have to go in 17+ novice as im having to give up work to look after my son and won't be able to afford bc mambership and all that. I dont realy want to go in novice as paddy and fuy others will give me s**t for it.
I think it would be a good idea if chris and the bc would let you race in your age cat if your fast enough, but you go with novice scoring. I.e if i won a masters race (if only) the actual
points and first place would go to the guy in second, assuming that guy has membership what do you think?

As of next year if i want to still race 4x im gonna have to go in 17+ novice as im having to give up work to look after my son and won't be able to afford bc mambership and all that. I dont realy want to go in novice as paddy and fuy others will give me s**t for it.
I think it would be a good idea if chris and the bc would let you race in your age cat if your fast enough, but you go with novice scoring. I.e if i won a masters race (if only) the actual
points and first place would go to the guy in second, assuming that guy has membership what do you think?

Probably sounds a bit too confusing, could cause a load of agro with people claiming points which they dont deserve etc... just do a couple of novice races mate, who gives a monkeys what anyone else thinks!!

Novice is a bit of a problem

We want new riders to come and try out the sport, but we also don't want to lose any riders.

The unwritten rule is if you win a novice race then you should move up into a series category.

After doing a year in novice the following year you should move up into a series category.

You will also then have a chance of winning a series prize.
This year the winners of a series category will win a pair of the latest Manitou Forks 

Also if you need a race licence now its half price, if your under 16 its free with your membership to BC.

could there be an on-the-day licence?

 i probably won't renew my licence next year, but still want to race the 4xtracks local to me-not the whole series, though i certainly don't really want to enter novice cat and be a complete sandbagger, i appreciate that dh has a closed shop licence only entry system, but then they are pulling in easy 300 riders-plus  so i suppose they can be picky, i'm not interested in downhill much but i would still do small dh races like aston, bikeparkuk etc as they can be entered easy and not be serious,  it would be good if 4x could be a bit like that(i feel myself that it is like that now, just has the licence problem)

 like db76 says, race your age cat and not get points maybe, its fun to race and not take it serious, if your serious then having a licence won't be a problem

what about changing the categories:

Open- no points, no licences, restricted prizes?
Novice- first timers, then keep the age split to 17+, 16- as it already is? or even combine the them?

The problem with too many categories is you end up with too few people in each, and then you end up racing the same people several times. If the NPS4X pulled more people it could work, but if it was more popular then it'd be easier for them to enforce rules about moving up from Novice (with the attitude "If you dont like paying for a race licence, then dont race. Somebody else will take your spot")

Hmm 'tis a tricky problem for sure!